Million-dollar suburbs decline

Stephen Nicholls

There are 31 fewer million-dollar suburbs in Australia after a year of falling prestige house prices - 194 compared with 225.

Yet, the top five are all in Sydney's eastern suburbs: Point Piper with its median house price of $5.21 million; Tamarama's $4,337,500; Bellevue Hill's $3.3 million; Vaucluse's $3.1 million and Double Bay's $2.96 million.

The Melbourne suburb of Deepdene is sixth at $2.495 million, pipping Dover Heights at $2.49 million. Toorak came in at number eight at $2.4 million; Perth's Dalkeith was $2.375 million and finally, Sydney's Mosman at $2.25 million.

An RP Data analyst Cameron Kusher said the number of suburbs with a median house price of more than $1 million had steadily trended upwards over the past decade, in line with generally rising property values.

''In fact, the 2008 and 2011 calendar years are the only two years where the number of suburbs fell in comparison to the previous calendar year,'' he said.

However, do not hold your breath for a significant improvement in prestige suburbs' fortunes this year.

"This sector … will continue to be weighed down by the poor performance of the equities market, the unstable global economic situation and lower levels of demand for debt by consumers."